Modern Family – Breaking Bad

Hey! It’s Chris Adraneda again. I’ll be leaving for Grand Prix Chicago soon and wanted to drop some thoughts before I make the trip home. I am 99% sure I’m playing Jund since it has a really good game against the field and is very resilient. At the same time I don’t know if I’m good enough to beat the mirror match every other round. When it comes to the mirror match, obviously the better player will win a majority of the time. As a lot of players at my local shop know…I’m pretty bad at Magic: The Gathering. And they keep reminding me that I’m the guy that forgot Inkmoth Nexus has flying and let a Snapcaster Mage block it. I’m the guy that thought Diregraf Captain gives ALL my zombies death touch AND convinced my opponent of this (in both instances the format was brand new AND my cards are almost always in a Foreign language. Ugh).

Truth of the matter is I’m pretty bad at this game. I don’t play enough. I don’t practice enough. Being a family man can really hinder a player’s addiction to Magic. Between soccer practices, bed time, bath time, birthday parties, and making lunches, Magic becomes the last of my priorities. All excuses aside, when I’m at the Grand Prix I just have to slow down, concentrate and see every angle of play as best as I can.

Unfortunately I will be playing the mirror a lot at the Grand Prix. A lot. This fact is really causing me to doubt my deck choice since I hate playing mirror matches. I hate seeing all the same cards across the table being used to savagely beat me to death. At heart I’m a rogue deck builder. Historically I’ve prided myself on trying to break bad cards and trying to make them good, i.e. Worldheart Phoenix in a 5-Color Control deck (c’mon! recurring 4/4 flyers!), Kuldotha Phoenix in a Big Red deck (see a trend here?), e.g. I have been wanting to build a Jund styled midrange deck but not be playing Jund per se. The past few days I have really been thinking about what makes Jund so damn powerful?

Yeah. I know. Looks bad right? Or does it? This deck plays all five colors (if you count the blue out of the sideboard) and actually has no problem casting its spells (fingers-crossed all Blood Moons aside). It really is a Jund deck in nature and has all of Jund’s strengths built in. Let’s take a look.

DISRUPTION
The big reason Jund is so amazing is its flexibility. Its main deck discard spells are a huge reason for this. Enter Tidehollow Sculler. For WB you can look at your opponents hand, see all their plans and take their best card. Upside? You get a 2/2 beatstick. Downside? Your stick can be killed and it costs 2 instead of the traditional 1 black mana Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek offer. Castigate is also present as discard redundancy being able to steal any non-land card with the added benefit of exiling that stolen spell. Speaking of redundancy, Blightning is also available to disrupt your opponent’s plans and dealing 3 damage. Blightning has fallen out of favor for a few reasons: 1. its too slow for the format and 2. the cards are your opponent’s choice. But I think Pro Tour Return to Ravnica and Grand Prix Lyon will force Grand Prix Chicago’s field to be more midrange because of such a diverse range of decks, other then Jund being a definitive staple, therefore inherently slower. This may give Blightning a chance for emergence. Let’s also keep in mind Blightning was played in a Top 8 Jund deck at PT RTR. Sure Eggs won a Pro Tour and Storm is still very relevant but this deck’s disruption suite is good against those decks as well as aggro and midrange strategies.

REMOVAL
This deck basically has the same removal package as Jund minus the Liliana of the Veil. Lightning Bolts, Terminates and Abrupt Decay are all staples of the Jundian menace. But the nice thing about playing a multi-colored deck is the inclusion of Lightning Helix. This spell has always been one of my favorite cards of all-time and in this deck full of Take 3 spells, is a perfect fit.

BIG THREATSBloodbraid Elf is a must if you’re playing any kind of Red-Green deck, except Tron or just splashing for Ancient Grudge (damn dirty Robots!!!). Kitchen Finks are also a must for a multi-colored deck. The curveball is thrown when Knight of the Reliquary comes down turn 3 looking like a 4/4 or heaven forbid a 5/5. Honestly, I’ve never really liked this card and sometimes feel its just a big dude. Naturally it fits the role of wannabe Tarmogoyf nicely. But without a fancy land fetching package (Sejiri Steppe or Bojuka Bog) due to greedy-ass mana, Knight is just a dumb guy. In this case that’s fine. The other random threat is Huntmaster of the Fells. At the 4 spot he seems kind of slow for what he can provide but I like him for his versatility. When he comes down he already affects the board by gaining you life and providing two bodies for blocks or attacks. Since a lot of your spells are instants, hanging back and letting him flip can work in your favor.

INHERENT CARD ADVANTAGE
Jund’s most powerful aspect is the card advantage the deck provides. Normally when you think of card advantage blue cards immediately come to mind. Sometimes it is just drawing two cards off of Divination (ugh). Naturally this is a 2-for-1. You use a spell to essentially net 1 more card then your opponent. WOTC has slowly been adding inherent card advantage in more then just blue spells. Green has been the leading recipient in this category for a few years now. If Divination is a baseline card advantage spell consider this deck’s suite. Bloodbraid Elf will never miss and is always a 2-for-1. Kitchen Finks, because he nets 4 life and essentially 2 bodies I would classify this creature as a 3-for-1. In terms of the Philosophy of Fire the 4 life gained essentially equals 1.337 burn spells. Having to deal with the same threat twice can equal two more cards. Huntmaster of the Fells is also in his category. By providing multiple bodies and gaining life he is also a 3-for-1. Blightning I also consider a 3-for-1 spell as well. Based on the same philosophy the 3 damage dealt equals a card and you are already stealing 2 more cards. Lastly, Lightning Helix is a 2-for-1 spell. Because it can kill a guy and net you 3 life, to me, makes it card advantageous. That added 3 life basically negates an opponent’s Lightning Bolt.

THE MANABASE
One of Jund’s weaknesses has always been its mana base. This deck is no different and probably just worse. Playing so many colors it is forced to play a ton of Fetch and Shocks lands. Although this does help Knight of the Reliquary, it could spell doom in some other cases. But that is why I love Pillar of the Paruns in a deck with 36 multi-color spells. Combo this land with Reflecting Pool and you have 100% capability of playing your spells. The one-of Murmuring Bosk is also key since that land and a Pillar you should be fine to play whatever you like (considering you don’t get screwed after just two lands). The fact that Bosk can be fetched with Verdant Catacombs is also a huge boon.

SIDEBOARD
I admit the sideboard is extremely loose. Finding some kind of artifact or mono-color based hate would be optimal but I fear not being able to run those cards off of Pillar of the Paruns. Luckily there are a wealth of hate cards to choose from. Castigate, Meddling Mage and Slaughter Games all shore up combo based match ups. The charm package would come in for Dredge, Pyromancer’s Ascension and Robots. And Loxodon Smiter comes in versus opposing discard type spells. My only real fear is not being able to deal with Blood Moon. The only shot I have is bringing in additional Castigate and Meddling Mages hoping to snag it before it comes down.

I have been known to habitually play bad cards, bad decks and just plain play bad. Hopefully I can break that habit. Maybe my Gold Deck Wins will help me break it at Grand Prix Chicago. Eh. Who am I kidding? I’m playing Jund. I just have to find a way to cram Nature’s Claim into my sideboard to fight Blood Moon.

The good thing is I’m brewing the format as best as I can and having fun doing so! I encourage every player to do the same!

At the same time I want this GP to be over so I can finally play some Return To Ravnica Standard.

I’ll be back after the Grand Prix to give you my X-5 tournament report. Until then keep on brewing!

Ian, there is actually a Boom/Bust Naya list that plays some of the same cards. If you want Land Destruction Bloodbraid into Boom/Bust seems really good. I'm willing to try that type of deck for Modern.

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